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I examined a couple of ideas for my tup design on the hammer build; I need to take another trip to the scrap yard and see what i can find. Hammered out a copper bracelet for myself, and cleared some brush in the plantation and discovered a rust mine of discarded items. Found a new compressor for the shop to run the power hammer and put 1/2 down on it....guess i am building an air hammer now for sure.

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I've just had my first knife that fought me till the end, well, his end since it ended up in the garbage. It first was a 2" wide santoku but I realized it wasn't properly hardened at heel so I attempted another quench but the edge had become too thin and it waved like a bacon. So, I normalized and reground it into a 5" petty, 1" wide and quenched it again. Now that I just finished grinding it, I did a brass rod test since the edge was nearly zero. It bent and kept the bend...

It's weird, I don't know where I went wrong. It had a pretty cool hamon. I probably underheated.

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I had a failure on a new knife, have a habit of resting knives sideways on my index and tapping/bouncing the blade on my kitchen counter......testing the springyness or something I guess...

Anyway, picked up a funny vibration on one knife but I couldn't figure out what was going on...

It's simple full-tang with micarta scale, turns out it was a slight design fault since the blade is 4mm spring steel it can bend a bit, and the scales went too far forward past the pin onto the thin part at the finger choil.

While flexing the glue let go a bit......here's the good news.

After managing to punch out the front pin....quite a struggle......and wedging Stanley blades inbetween the tang and the scales as far as possible (halfway), the handle still wouldn't come loose.

Even at this point it could still be a functional knife.

I user Epidermix 372 slow set epoxy and file 3 notches into all my pins to form glue locks, glad I got the chance to test the construction.

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I added weight to the base of my power hammer. By doing so i raised it up a few inches... I know it's a no-no to stack weight on the anvil, but it was my only choice. I need to add more weight to the anvil, and add length to the aluminium drive wheel, but it will work fine as is until I get around to it.

Next I'm gonna coredrill the floor and set some 1" bolts in anchoring cement to hold it all snug. Then I'll paint it again.

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Circumstances being what they are, I've been spending a lot more free time working with wood instead of metal.

The Mrs. needed seats made for her class. I made some last month, and three came back for repairs today.This one got reengineered with a couple hacksaw blades as springs.

Pic 2 is dresser pieces I'm repurposing into a sandpaper organizer because I finally have dedicated shop space, and it looks like bitter divorce proceedings in there with all the random stuff strewn about.

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What thickness of sheet are you using for the furniture? I assume it's brass? Also, what are you using for the rivets? Brass nails, or making them out of brass rod? What thickness?

I'm using phosphorus bronze, it's pretty close to the old tin/copper mix used historically and has a nice gold color... It also work hardens nicely. Most of it is .02 inch thickness, except for where the rings attach which is .032 inch for extra strength. I'm using simple 1/8" brass solid rivets.

Is there any reason I would not want to do it this way for future reference.

I didn't see any reason to do more than tack it...its not going anywhere.

I have never tack welded a frame onto a tang before and I have made quite a few frame handled knives. I do not see how you are going to shape the scales or pin them through the frame to each other at this point. Typically, I build my frame handles off of the knife, finish them 99% of the way (the only thing left to do is dome or flatten the pins) and then assemble the handle onto the blade.

How are you planning to finish the handle?

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I have never tack welded a frame onto a tang before and I have made quite a few frame handled knives. I do not see how you are going to shape the scales or pin them through the frame to each other at this point. Typically, I build my frame handles off of the knife, finish them 99% of the way (the only thing left to do is dome or flatten the pins) and then assemble the handle onto the blade.

How are you planning to finish the handle?

I am a little concerned that I may scratch the guard....and am a little concerned at how thick the handle its self is.

Having said that my competition blade is the same material/thickness and it feels nice in the hand.

I have it drilled for 2 pins. I think I can make it happen....if not I can always para-cord it.

It was originally a hidden tang. The knife got knocked to the floor the very day I put it on on the alumalight exploded.

Then I cracked one peening the pin. Then had a third one fail in testing.